Thursday, March 17, 2011

St. Patrick’s Blessings

Spring equinox is only a couple of days away. Florida is starting to feel more like—uh, Florida—than I’ve experienced over the last few months. For a purportedly warm state, it has been a cold winter. Or maybe it just feels that way to me since I’m a transplant from Arizona.Spring also means the inevitable pollens running amok as plants join the animal kingdom in doing the wild thing to repopulate the world with their particular species. I’ve decided pine pollen is definitely not my friend as I’ve been sick with sinusitis for over a week and now have bronchitis.

Other than required English department meetings and my actual classes, I’ve had to opt out of all sorts of other activities in order to try to get well as tomorrow morning I’m flying back to Tucson to visit my husband, sister, and friends during my college’s spring break.Although I feel as though a huge pine tree actually fell on me as opposed to just sharing its own form of plant pheromones to irritate my allergies, I did manage to bake numerous batches of traditional Scottish Shortbread for my students in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

Yes, I do know that St. Patrick was Irish. However, my shortbread mold represents all of the British Isles, so my baked offering works fine. Each segment of the mold offers the following representation: Thistles for Scotland, Celtic Knot-work for Ireland, a Tudor Rose for England, and a Welsh Dragon for Wales.

And could you please share a secret? I have the thistle mold, much like yours, and I used it for the first time a few weeks ago. My shortbread stuck to the mold, even though I sprayed it. Do you have a secret for getting the shortbread out of the mold?